£27,000 CARIBBEAN JAUNT AS NET CLOSED ON KILLERS
LIVING in a leafy parish just outside Canterbury, Shirley and Lynette Banfield attracted little attention.
Living as virtual recluses, they were only ever seen tending the garden and leaving the house to go out shopping.
But behind their closed curtains on Ashford Road, Canterbury, the remorseless pair were busy spending the proceeds of their crime, splashing out on luxury Caribbean holidays and getting a thrill out of stealing clothes and jewellery.
Police were astonished to find their home packed full of clothes, perfume, make-up and costume jewellery, all still with the store tags on.
Officers believe they indulged in daily shoplifting sprees, even though they had no friends or boyfriends to show their ill-gotten clothes off to. Also, significantly, not one photograph of Donald Banfield was found in the property.
After killing her husband, Mrs Banfield had to apply to the High Court to get her share of their house in Wealdstone, North West London, as her husband had failed to sign vital transfer deeds.
The compulsive liar persuaded the court by saying her daughter was pregnant by her boyfriend of six years, even though Miss Banfield had never been allowed by her controlling mother to have a boyfriend.
Mrs Banfield ploughed the proceeds into property.
She capitalised on the boom by buying and selling homes in Whitby, Yorkshire, then York, before buying a four-bedroom detached home in Canterbury outright, with a further £1 0,000 left in the bank.
Her daughter, who formerly worked for the Department for Work and Pensions, knew how to forge documents to drain her father’s pensions.
The constant moves may have warded off questioning by prying neighbours, but Miss Banfield nearly gave the game away when she went to see her GP, claiming she had attempted suicide and citing a family trauma.
Panicked, Mrs Banfield accompanied Miss Banfield on visits to mental health staff, falsely claiming to be her aunt and making sure her daughter said nothing.
When police later questioned them on suspicion of murder in 2009, Mrs Banfield continued to lie, saying she had seen her husband a few months earlier and insisting she had to get back home to feed her cockatiel.
But beneath her cool exterior, she was worried.
When the pair were released on bail after their arrest in 2010, Mrs Banfield tried to sell their house, telling an estate agent she would accept just £2 0,000 for the home – worth an estimated £390,000 – if it could be sold within 36 hours.
The pair then lavished £27,000 on a luxury Caribbean holiday, flying first class to Grenada where they spent their four weeks drinking cocktails, enjoying spa treatments and soaking up the sun in a five-star resort.